Teresa and Other Poems By James Rhoades |
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AFTER THE FUNERAL
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 | Teresa and Other Poems |  |
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XV
AFTER THE FUNERAL
When all the funeral-train were passed away,
Stood one beside the gaping earth who said,
‘Into this grave, leaf after leaf, I shred
The garland of my life, there to decay
Till she rise with it at the Judgment Day.’
First, the fair dreams whereon his childhood fed,
Then youth's high promise, half-accomplishèd,
Dropped into Death's irrevocable Nay;
Pleasure, and all sweet sense of lovely things,
Fell fluttering next, and that fond parasite,
Hope, that to life's frail stem so closely clings;
Last, trailing Memory, hung with dead delight.
When all these blossoms in the dust were strown,
He, with his empty heart, returned alone.
| Teresa and Other Poems | |